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The Boston Marathon Bombings refers to a terrorist attack that took place during the Boston Marathon in the United States on April 15, 2013. Two bombs exploded near the finish line on Boylston Street, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.

April 15

More than 130 people were injured today as multiple explosions rocked the Boston Marathon in a "coordinated" terror attack

More than 130 people were injured today as multiple explosions rocked the Boston Marathon in a "coordinated" terror attack.

Two explosions were detonated at the race's finish line within seconds of each other, beginning at 2:50 p.m. Three other undetonated devices were later discovered by authorities. A federal law enforcement source told The Post there are at least 12 dead and at least 132 people have been treated at seven area hospitals.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to The Post that authorities have a identified a suspect, a Saudi national, who is currently being guarded in a Boston hospital with shrapnel wounds.

CBS reported that an individual is in custody. He is reportedly cooperative and denies involvement in the attack.

A White House official told Bloomberg news, "Any event with multiple explosive devices — as this appears to be — is clearly an act of terror."

In addition, Boston police have surveillance video of someone bringing multiple backpacks to the blast site, according to CBS News.

Police also confirmed that there was a third explosion, at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. It was not immediately clear how much damage was done or whether it was related to the bombings at the marathon finish line.

The library bombing occurred about 4:30 p.m. and more than a mile from the marathon.

A law enforcement source confirmed to The Post that 12 people were killed and nearly 50 were injured in today's blast.

Reporter describes filming 'horrific' Boston explosions (video)

David Abel of the Boston Globe has spoken to the BBC about the scene he filmed at the finish line of the Boston marathon as two blasts erupted.
He was filming runners as they finished the race when he heard the "boom" and "immediately knew it was an attack"...

April 16

Officials: 176 injured, 3 dead in Boston Marathon explosions

Officials: 176 injured, 3 dead in Boston Marathon explosions.
Investigators are combing through debris at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where two bombs exploded, killing three people - including an 8-year-old boy - and wounding 176 others.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian Salafi cleric Sheik Murgan Salem, which aired on Tahrir TV on April 16, 2013:

Interviewer: Today, we will be talking about the Boston bombings, which took place yesterday, during the marathon. There were casualties. People were wounded and killed. What is your analysis of what happened?

Murgan Salem: In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Obviously, I do not know who carried out that operation, but if it was done by the mujahideen, it serves as a message to America and the West: We are still alive. Contrary to what you say, we have not died. The [Americans] wanted to send a message to the entire world that they had finished off the mujahideen – not just the mujahideen of Al-Qaeda, but the mujahideen all over the world. I do not know who carried out this attack, but if it was indeed the mujahideen, it was meant as a clear message to America and to the West.

Interviewer: But do you think that this could have been an Al-Qaeda operation?

Murgan Salem: No. this was not up to the standards of Al-Qeda. It was extremely amateurish. The standards of Al-Qaeda are much higher. By the way, I was not a member of the Al-Qaeda organization. But I knew all the people who belonged to it.

Interviewer: You were close to Sheik Osama and Dr. Ayman…

Murgan Salem: We were like one family. I am happy and proud to have been a friend of these brothers, but I cannot claim to have had the honor of being an Al-Qaeda member. The standards and techniques of Al-Qaeda are much higher. From what I saw on the news, this was the work of amateurs. I do not know who did it, but they have managed to get the message across: We can reach you whenever and wherever we want.

[…]

Over the past 30 years, there has been a qualitative leap in the war with America. American is waging a war in our countries, and we are the ones who reap its fruits. Those courageous heroes have shifted the battle over to America’s own turf.

I do not rule out the possibility that this was carried out by people born in the U.S. I do exclude the possibility that it was done by the Al-Qaeda organization. This is not the work of Osama Bin Laden or Ayman Al-Zawahiri. I think it was done by people resentful of the policy and arrogance of America and Europe. It is not just America.

The Americans have passed their arrogance over to France. France, which led the first Crusade, is now leading the war against Islam and the Muslims. They must taste the bitter retribution for their deeds. This is not a threat, but a warning of what might happen to them.

Interviewer: To America and the West?

Murgan Salem: To France in particular, and to America and the entire West.

Interviewer: Why?

Murgan Salem: Because the [French] are leading the war against us. What brought France to Mali? Or America to Afghanistan and Iraq? Why don’t they let our nation be? Have we ever interfered in their affairs?

[…]

France has accepted the banner of arrogance and enmity to Islam, so it will taste what it deserves. I cannot be held responsible for over one million [Muslims] in the West, who were harmed by French and American policy. More than one million [Muslims] were born in the West. I cannot be held responsible for them. I do not know what they may do. The [Westerners] are facing a deluge, and they will be destroyed.

Interviewer: Destroyed?

Murgan Salem: There is no doubt about it. The U.S. has completely collapsed, even if they are not hurrying to admit it. The American debt has reached how many trillions of dollars? They have a huge debt. Now poverty is spreading throughout America.

[…]

We say to the Western peoples: Force your stupid governments to refrain from supporting the tyrants. France’s intervention in Mali will not go unanswered. I don’t think it will. I do not have any specific information, but I am sure it will not go unanswered – just like their intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan did not go unanswered. They will suffer catastrophes for this.

[…]

With the utmost stupidity, France has accepted the banner of enmity [to Islam] – from the days of Sarkozy to Hollande. This stupidity will bring catastrophes upon them, just like it did upon America. Although I am not from Al-Qaeda, I can say, as someone who has known these people, that the path of Al-Qaeda is the path of the Koran, which calls upon [Muslims] to wage Jihad against infidels who attack them and intervene in their affairs. This is the path of Islam and the Koran, and not something invented by Osama Bin Laden.

No, it was not invented by Osama or Ayman. It was sent down by Allah, and anyone who thinks he can defeat this path is delusional.

[…]

Interviewer: Who do you consider to be an infidel?

Murgan Salem: Anyone who does not accept Islam. They are either original infidels, like the Jews and Christians, or apostates, like the secularists, liberals, Communists, or socialists. Whoever does not accept Islam is an infidel. Allah said so, not me.

Jihadist web forums lit up on Tuesday with anti-American radicals celebrating Monday’s terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded at least 170.

According to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the online web activities of radical Muslim groups and individuals, “jihadists expressed their joy and hoped the blasts are acts of jihadi terrorism.”

“We ask Allah that this is the start before the storm,” said one user on one Jihadist forum. “May Allah give you the glad tiding of Paradise for this joyous news.”

Some forum users hoped a Jihadist group was behind the attacks. Others speculated that an American militia group was responsible.

SITE detailed more of the postings:

One forum member noted that over a week ago, a jihadist announced his desire to plan bombings in the United States, but was chastised by others for revealing such a plot publicly. He is referring to a posting on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum on April 1 in which a jihadist tried to recruit members for an attack similar in impact to al-Qaeda’s 9/11 strikes, but seemed focused on the attack being a suicide bombing. In other posts responding to the explosions, on the Ansar al-Mujahideen, al-Fida’ and Shumukh al-Islam forums, jihadists gave pictures circulated in the media of the aftermath, showing injured people and a bloody sidewalk, and some hoped more bombings will follow.

Administrators of Shumukh al-Islam, a top-tier jihadist forum and primary source for official messages from al-Qaeda, placed a two scrolling messages atop the forum, the first stating: “Urgent // Casualties and Injuries in an Explosion that Shook the US State of Boston, and a State of Panic and Chaos Spreads Across America in General,” and the second giving an oft-repeated statement from former al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden: “I swear by Allah the Great, who raised the sky without pillars, that America and those who live in America will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine and until all the disbelieving armies are expelled from the land of Muhammad, Allah’s peace and prayer be upon him.”

Taliban say they support Boston bombings, Somali terror group Al-Shabab mock the dead and wounded on its English-language Twitter feed

Around the world, foreign leaders have roundly condemned the deadly bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Ordinary citizens overseas are, by and large, also expressing sympathy for the victims. And America's enemies are, well, gloating.. . .

Along with the sympathy and bewilderment, however, came glee from America's enemies. The Taliban said they didn't carry out the bombing, but they supported it. The Somali Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabab mocked the dead and wounded on its English-language Twitter feed.

HSMPress @HSMPRESS1

The #BostonBombings are just a tiny fraction of what US soldiers inflict upon millions of innocent Muslims across the globe on a daily basis

April 17

High-ranking Muslim Brotherhood official assumes Muslims behind Boston attacks, blames the United States

A high-ranking Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood official has linked the deadly Boston attacks to the U.S.-backed French war in Mali.

Essam Elerian, vice chairman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), wrote in a statement posted in Arabic on his Facebook account that the “events began with the sending of French battalions to Mali in a war against organizations that are said to be part of al Qaeda.”

Elerian expressed sympathy with the families of the victims, but said the attacks “do not stop us from reading into the grave incident.”

“Who interfered in democratic transformations, despite the difficult transition from despotism, corruption, poverty, hatred and intolerance to freedom, justice, tolerance, development, human dignity and social justice?” he asked. “Who created Islamophobia through research and media? Who funded this violence?”...

April 18

Jordanian journalist: The Jews and the American right are behind Boston bombing, just as they were behind 9/11

In an article titled "The Boston Explosions – Look For Jews" on the Jordanian website Ammon News, Palestinian-born Jordanian journalist As'ad Al-'Azouni, known for his antisemitic articles, wrote that the Jews and the "American right" were behind the recent Boston bombing, just as they had been behind the attacks of 9/11. He claimed that the bombing was meant to prevent U.S. President Barack Obama from discharging his second term in office in peace. . .

[we see that] the bombing of the [Twin] Towers was meant to embroil America in the Middle East, whereas the Boston bombing and its repercussions were meant to deter America from trying to pressure Israel to advance the peace process in the region.

"The most puzzling [point] in this context is that [former U.S. president George] Bush Jr. announced the identity of those who had perpetrated the September 11 attacks. He said they were members of Al-Qaeda and that he had their passports, which had been found in the ruins of the two towers. The fire that, as we know, had consumed steel… had not managed to burn these passports, thank God. President Obama, on the other hand, is cleverer than his predecessor and understands the rules of the game. He has not announced [the names of] the [Boston] perpetrators and has blamed nobody, and it has been said that the operation was a domestic one…
"The terrorist bombing [that took place] during the Boston marathon, near the finish line, clearly bears Jewish fingerprints. It is a message to President Obama to stop messing with Israel. These explosions were probably not the first warning issued to President Obama, nor will they be the last, for they will not let him enjoy his second term in office, and have even decided to target him personally.

"According to American sources, one week before the marathon, Boston police officers began to train, with dogs, to put out fires in this area. These explosions are another link in the chain of bombings that America has witnessed in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

"The Jews and their allies in the American right – who harbor intense hatred for anyone who isn't white and still regret that a black president occupies the White House – will not let President Obama discharge his second term in office without problems. The Jews, as usual, are impossible to make an alliance with. They have no loyalty towards those who have served them, and betrayal is in their nature."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation release photographs and video of two suspects

Shortly after the FBI released the photographs and video, the suspects were identified as brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Today, we are enlisting the public’s help to identify the two suspects.

After a very detailed analysis of photo, video, and other evidence, we are releasing photos of the two suspects. They are identified as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2. They appear to be associated.

Suspect 1 is wearing a black hat

Suspect 2 is wearing a white hat.

Suspect 2 set down a back pack at the site of the second explosion just in front of the Forum Restaurant.

We strongly encourage those who were at the Forum Restaurant who have not contacted us yet to do so.

As you can see from one of the images, Suspects 1 and 2 appear to be walking together through the marathon crowd on Boylston Street in the direction of the finish line. That image was captured as they walked on Boylston in the vicinity of its intersection with Gloucester Street.

As you can see, the quality of the photos is quite good, but we will continue to work on developing additional images to improve their identification.

Further, on FBI.gov, we have videos of the suspects. The photos and videos are posted for the public and media to use, review and publicize...

April 19

City of Boston gave 'subsidy' to bombing suspects mosque

Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended a Massachusetts mosque that made a controversial deal with a Boston city agency that allowed it to buy land at a lower-than-market price in exchange for various token services to the Boston community, despite the mosque’s links to some radical anti-American figures
The 19-year-old Tsarnaev attended mosque at the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) in Cambridge, Massachusetts...

The Islamic Society of Boston, attended by Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, recently hosted a book event featuring a journalist who has been highly critical of the U.S. and U.K. “War on Terror,” which she described as a “war against Islam.”
The Islamic Society of Boston also encouraged its members to show their “support of the forgotten women of the War on Terror.”...

Two suspects wanted for the Boston Marathon bombings engaged in shootout with police, 1 suspect and 1 officer dead

The two suspects wanted for the Boston Marathon bombings engaged in an explosive shootout with police overnight Thursday and into Friday in Watertown, Mass. The incident left Suspect 1 dead.

Authorities launched an investigation after news broke that an MIT police officer, identified later as Sean Collier, 26, had been shot and killed on Thursday. Around 1:20 a.m. Friday, CNN had live coverage of a firefight between police and the two suspects - identified later as brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev -- in the Boston suburb of Watertown...

"I'm very religious," Boston bombers are two Chechen Muslims, one created YouTube playlists dedicated to Islam and terrorism

The following report does not mention his playlists for both Islam and terrorism, but you can see the lists for yourself by following the link they provide.

Authorities are now confirming the two suspects sought in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing are two Russian-born (as reported by the AP) Chechen brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. Tamerlan, the older brother, is dead. Here's what we know about him.

It's not much, and most of it's derived from a photo gallery for a 2010 article in the Boston University graduate school magazine. [Update, 3:20 p.m.: We've removed the photos at Landov Media's request.] We know Tamerlan Tsarnaev was 26 and a competitive boxer for a club named Team Lowell. He won the Rocky Marciano Trophy for being New England Golden Gloves heavyweight champion in 2010, and did this while taking time off from school at Bunker Hill Community College where he studied in hopes of being an engineer. He's been boxing in the U.S. since at least 2004, and his uncle told WBZ in Boston that he arrived in the United States in 2000 under refugee status from Kyrgyzstan.. . .
We know he had a YouTube profile, where he created a playlist dedicated to terrorism. The photo gallery features his girlfriend at the time, and the caption reads:

Tamerlan demonstrates a way of walking to strengthen the ankle muscles at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center. A native of Chechnya, Tamerlan says: "In Russia, we used to train like this. Here nobody does it, I don't know why!"

Tamerlan says he doesn't drink or smoke anymore: "God said no alcohol." A muslim, he says: "There are no values anymore," and worries that "people can't control themselves."

Tamerlan says he doesn't usually take his shirt off so girls don't get bad ideas: "I'm very religious."

Tamerlan says he loves the movie "Borat," even though some of the jokes are a bit too much.

If he wins enough fights there, Tamerlan says he could be selected for the US Olympic team and be naturalized American. Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia.

Chechen President blames America for Boston bomb suspects' acts of evil because of 'immoral upbringing'

Chechnya's Russian-backed president has hit out at America for killing one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and blamed the US for moulding them into terrorists.

Chechen-born Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died from gunshot wounds and possible blast injuries after a fierce gun battle rocked the Watertown area of Boston hours after a police officer was shot dead at the nearby MIT campus.

His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokha, fled the shoot out and is on the run, reportedly having strapped explosives to his body.
But President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former Chechen rebel himself, told US authorities that 'any attempt to draw a connection' between Chechnya and the brothers was 'futile'.

In a Russian-language statement on Instagram, he added: 'They were raised in the United States, and their attitudes and beliefs were formed there.

'It is necessary to seek the roots of this evil in America.

'The whole world must struggle against terrorism — that we know better than anyone else. We hope for the recovery of all the victims, and we mourn with the Americans.'

Muslim militants from Chechnya have a long history of unleashing devastating terror attacks on Russia – but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon blasts would mark the first time they have targeted the West.

However, the United States may have become a target for Chechen terrorists in the wake of the harrowing Beslan school hostage crisis nearly ten years ago, an expert claimed today...

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site.

Abusive comments in Russian and English were flooding onto Tsarnaev's page on VK, a Russian-language social media site, on Friday after he was identified as a suspect in the bombing of the Boston marathon.

Police launched a massive manhunt for Tsarnaev, 19, after killing his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a shootout overnight.

On the site, the younger Tsarnaev identifies himself as a 2011 graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It says he went to primary school in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, a province in Russia that borders Chechnya, and lists his languages as English, Russian and Chechen.

His "World view" is listed as "Islam" and his "Personal priority" is "career and money".

He has posted links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war and to Islamic web pages with titles like "Salamworld, my religion is Islam" and "There is no God but Allah, let that ring out in our hearts".

He also has links to pages calling for independence for Chechnya, a region of Russia that lost its bid for secession after two wars in the 1990s...

Brother-in-law: "I’m not Muslim and they didn’t accept me"

"I’m hurt for everyone that’s been hurt" Alina Tsarnaev, the sister of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, told a throng of reporters. . .During the interview, Tsarnaev’s husband stuck his head out from behind the door several times, mostly asking the media to leave to "give us a little while"

He said he was "born and raised" in America and had never met his brothers-in-law.

"I’m not Muslim and they didn’t accept me … Let’s leave it at that," he said...

The imam of a mosque that is managed by the Muslim Brotherhood-founded Muslim American Society (MAS) was initially invited to speak at Thursday’s interfaith service in Boston to honor the Boston Marathon attack’s victims, but that invitation was later rescinded by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s office, JNS.org has learned.

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center’s (ISBCC) Imam Suhaib Webb, according to a series of Twitter posts, was replaced as the representative of Boston’s Muslim community at the service—whose keynote speaker was President Barack Obama—in favor of Nasser Wedaddy, director of civil rights outreach for the American Islamic Congress and chair of the New England Interfaith Council.

Webb posted on his Twitter account Thursday, “Sorry, Muhammad Wedaddy from the American Islamic Congress will represent Boston Muslims.” Asked by another Twitter user who Wedaddy was, Webb wrote, “No idea. I was informed last night at 9pm that he was replacing me? lets focus on the service.” Webb later tweeted, “I was told the governor’s office made the call.”...

Friday sermon in Sudan delivered by Shaykh Al-Karouri claims Israel is behind the Boston bombings and the earthquake in Iran

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Sheik Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri, which aired on April 19, 2013:

Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri: The most important political events of the week were the Boston earthquake and the Texas earthquake, which joined it yesterday… Or rather, the bombings in Boston and in Texas, as well as the Iran earthquake. In short, the peculiar thing is that no one knows who is behind these events. Even President Obama said: "We do not know who did this or why." Iran, too, does not know who caused the earthquake.

[…]
People know who is responsible for earthquakes. It is God. But now there are allegations that this earthquake was artificial. The so-called "earthquake-war" has begun. The industrialized countries have the capacity to make bombs that impact the Earth’s crust and core, causing earthquakes. It is even said that the tsunami that raised the waves, causing thousands of deaths, was, in fact, an experiment in that weapon.

[…]

This earthquake had two goals: first, to [prevent] the Russians from officially handing over the Bushehr nuclear plant to Iran within a month’s time. The West does not want this to happen.

[…]
They wanted to destroy the new gas pipeline [from Iran to Pakistan], along with the [Bushehr] nuclear plant. There is also the issue of promoting the sale of gas masks. These expired gas masks, meant to protect people from nuclear gases, have recently been sold in the Gulf. The fourth goal is to sow fear in the Gulf region, where the earthquakes were heard. They want to make these people scared of the Iranian nuclear plant, and to ignite a regional Sunni-Shiite war, a war between Iran and its neighbors.

[…]

To this we should add the bombings in America. Now they are saying that the bombs were placed in "primitive" pots. Why would anyone in the U.S. need to resort to nails and pressure cookers to make a bomb? You can find any type of weapon there and simply buy it. Why did they say "primitive"? I don’t have time to read you the quotation. They said that the bomb was "primitive," in order to direct the blame at one of us in the Third World.

[…]

When North Korea stopped manufacturing buses, it started making nuclear warheads. Today, North Korea poses a threat to America. America might be drawn into an historic war, a war between Communism and capitalism. This is precisely what Israel does not want. Israel wants the war to be between America and the "primitive" Arabs, and that is why the bombs were "primitive."

I have said that the [9/11] Manhattan bombings were meant to transform America from a country to an empire, and that it is, indeed, what happened. Now, they do not want this empire to expand, and to revive the Cold War – this time with North Korea and the Asian countries. No, they want America to continue to defend Israel.

April 20

THE aunt of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects says the older brother recently became a devout Muslim.. . .She says Tamerlan married and had a daughter in the US and that his religious devotion led him to pray five times a day.

She called the boys smart and athletic, and she wants proof they are involved in the bombing.

Suspect posted video of cleric who preaches that rape victims only have themselves to blame and encouraged children to become martyrs for Islam

A radical Australian Muslim cleric who despises Harry Potter and preaches that rape victims only have themselves to blame had a fan in the Boston bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, posted a YouTube video of fiery Sheik Feiz Mohammad, who had encouraged children to become martyrs for Islam, it was reported yesterday.

In 2007, a British documentary called “Undercover Mosque” showed footage of him saying children should be “soldiers defending Islam.’’

He said, “Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid. Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom.’’. . .Mohammad also spoke out against Jews, calling them “pigs’’ who “have got the most extreme racial pride in them.’’...

Friends and family said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become increasingly religious in recent years

Authorities gave no indication as to what motivated the brothers. Their family roots stretch to the Russian republic of Chechnya, which has been a wellspring of terrorism over the years.

One thread has emerged from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's own files. In early 2011, the FBI interviewed the older brother, Tamerlan, at the request of the Russian government but found nothing suspicious, a U.S. official said Friday. The Russian government had expressed concern that Tamerlan Tsarnaev planned to travel to Russia to engage in possible terrorist activities. Travel records show that he traveled to Russia in January 2012 and returned six months later.

The FBI disclosed in a written statement that the request said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become a follower of radical Islam "and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups."

Some friends and family said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had become increasingly religious in recent years. Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle, said Saturday on NBC that the older brother had been radicalized in the U.S. "There is someone who brainwashed him, some new convert to Islam," he said. "I was shocked when I heard his words, his phrases, when every other word he starts sticking in words of God."...

He was as American as apple pie, a handsome Golden Gloves boxer who wore preppy sweaters, married his high-school sweetheart and tooled around the family’s quaint Boston neighborhood in a Mercedes.

But Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old Chechen immigrant, also harbored an increasingly alarming hatred of his adopted country.

“He said in Russian, ‘I don’t like what America is doing,’ ” a Latvian neighbor told The Post yesterday, recalling a chat he had with the Boston bombing suspect, who was killed early yesterday in a shootout with police in Watertown, Mass.

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I don’t like it because they shouldn’t be in Muslim countries.’ ’’

Tsarnaev’s wife, Katherine Russell, a 24-year-old Muslim convert, remained holed up with her parents at their Rhode Island home yesterday...

One of the Boston bombing suspects set off alarm bells among his family a year ago during a trip here to visit relatives, ABC News has learned.

According to a family member, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a devout Muslim, was kicked out of his uncle's house because of his increasingly extremist views on religion.. . .Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent roughly six months in Russia in 2012, but the relative, who insisted on anonymity to avoid offending other family members, insisted the young man had been radicalized in the United States before his trip.

Dagestan is one of the poorest and most violent regions of Russia, home to an Islamist insurgency that seeks to establish an independent state. So far, no links have tied him to militant groups here.

Members of Congress, however, say those six months last year were a turning point in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's radicalization.

"When he came back he starting posting more radical jihadist YouTube videos and started becoming more of a fundamentalist Muslim," Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News Friday.

"My concern is that he may have gone over there to visit his father and he received training and then became radicalized and then came back. Something happened in that period of time. He was not like that before," McCaul said...

April 21

The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.

Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.

More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.

A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

A specialist team of CIA and FBI interrogators was yesterday flown to a Boston hospital to grill wounded Dzhokhar, 19, about the secret group.. . .US Government officials have said the brothers were not under surveillance as possible militants. And an FBI statement said the matter was closed because interviews with Tamerlan and family members “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign”. But now they believe the pair, who emigrated to the United States from Dagestan about a decade ago, were part of a terror cell...

THE Russian FSB intelligence security service told the FBI in early 2011 about information that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the brothers suspected in the Boston marathon bombings, was a follower of radical Islam, two law enforcement officials say.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout, and his younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, was captured alive.

They were identified by authorities and relatives as ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who had been in the US for about a decade.

According to an earlier FBI news release, a foreign government said that based on its information, Tsarnaev, 26, was a strong believer and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the US for travel to a region in that country to join unspecified underground groups.

The FBI did not name the foreign government, but the two law enforcement officials identified the FSB as the provider of the information to one of the FBI's field offices and also to FBI headquarters in Washington DC.

Dead Tsarnaev brother now a suspect in the unsolved murder and mutilation of three Jews on 10th anniversary of 9/11

Waltham police have stepped up their investigation of a 2011 triple homicide where a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was brutally murdered, according to a relative of one of the victims who was interviewed by the Globe.

The relative said Sunday that police have renewed the investigation at the request of victims’ relatives who believe Tamerlan, and perhaps his younger brother, Dzhokhar, played a role in the homicides. Authorities have said the victims all had their throats slit.

Stephanie Guyotte, a spokeman for the Middlesex district attorney’s office, said, “We’re eager to pursue any new leads of information. It has been reported he knew one of the deceased victims. It remains an open and active investigation.”

Previously, investigators had said that Brendan Mess, 25, along with Erik Weissman, 25, and Raphael Teken, 37, were killed on Sept. 12, 2011, in Mess’s apartment on Harding Street, a quiet residential street in Waltham. They also said they believed drugs were involved.

But the relative interviewed by the Globe said the murders took place the evening before, on Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The relative said he knew this because he was texting one of the victims about a Sunday night football game between the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys when communication with the victims suddenly stopped at about 8:15 that evening.

“The three of them were definitely killed on Sept. 11,” the relative said. “They all stopped using their cellphones at about eight o’clock that night.”

Tamerlan had become radicalized in his religious and political beliefs shortly before the murder and was an accomplished amateur heavyweight boxer, while Dzhokhar was a former captain of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin wrestling team and was also known as an adept boxer.

Investigators probing the Marathon bombings have said Tamerlan visited Chechnya and neighboring Dagestan for six months following the date of the Waltham murders.

The Globe reported Saturday that Tamerlan had introduced Mess to John Allan, owner of Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts in Allston, describing him as his “best friend.”

Records show that the Tsarnaev family and at least one member of the Mess family were neighbors in their Cambridge neighborhood.

Two years ago, the Globe reported that each of the victims had their throats slit. And friends of the victims have said their bodies were left covered with marijuana, according to the relative who was interviewed by the Globe...

“Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return,” UN official justifies Boston bombings, blames America and ‘Tel Aviv’

In a letter sent today to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice (see below), UN Watch demanded the condemnation of top UN Human Rights Council official Richard Falk over his latest remarks blaming the Boston terrorist attacks on U.S. foreign policy and “Tel Aviv.”...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry compares Boston victims to Marmara terrorists

Speaking at Istanbul, Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made a jarring comparison between the victims of the Boston Marathon terror bombs and terror activists from the IHH group who were killed when they attacked IDF forces aboard the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Kerry told his hosts in Turkey that he understands the pain of the families whose loved ones were killed aboard the Marmara – and added that he can understand their pain well, having just dealt with the families whose loved ones were slain in Boston.

Kerry said in his speech that he hopes the Israeli apology will lead to a thawing of Israel-Turkey relations...

"The Islamic group Prophet's Ummah has repeatedly and publicly praised terrorist acts carried out abroad. Also the terrorist attack in Boston on Monday is hailed by the leader of the extreme Norwegian group. On his facebook page Ubaydullah Hussain writes, 'To hell with Boston and the U.S., and may Allah destroy America.'
The leader of Prophet's Ummah has also posted pictures of the terrorists on their profile and calls the brothers a pair of 'real lions.'"

Commentary: Reluctance to blame Islam a sign of our 'maturity', some of us might hope for maturity from terrorists

WALEED Aly, the smiling face of Australian Islam, is an upbeat kind of guy. He remained so last week following the Boston Marathon bombings - not because of the bombings themselves, obviously, but because, as Aly put it: "We're finally maturing in the way we handle terrorism."

Some of us might hope for maturity from terrorists, who prefer bloodthirsty and irrational attacks on innocent targets over any kind of adult reasoning, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.

According to Aly, it's a sign of our increasing "maturity" that we now recognise terrorism as a "perpetual irritant, and that while it is tragic and emotionally lacerating, it kills relatively few people and is not any kind of existential threat".

Three people were killed in Boston due to irritants. Another 14 will endure the perpetual irritation of losing one or more limbs. By last Friday, 57 remained in hospital suffering emotional laceration to their faces and bodies. Hey, this new mature talk is fun.

Aly was also encouraged by a post-bombing reluctance to blame extremist Islam. "It's possible," he wrote, "that this reticence is a product of the very real suspicion that the perpetrators here are self-styled American patriots. At this point, most analysts are leaning that way."

Indeed they were. But, then again, they always do, right up until the moment they're inevitably proved wrong.

"Let's Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American," ran one headline in Salon, over some analysis by David Sirota, a white American himself, as columnist Mark Steyn noted, who "finds it less discomforting to his Princess Fluffy Bunny worldview to see his compatriots as knuckle-dragging nutjobs rather than confront all the apparent real-world contradictions of the diversity quilt".

In Australia, Labor speechwriter Bob Ellis decided that the National Rifle Association (NRA) was most probably behind the attacks. "It seems to me likely that this was not al-Qaeda or a lone madman," wrote Princess Fluffy Bobby, "but more likely, much more likely, the NRA. No responsibility will be claimed by any group, and there will be no second attack; and no culprit ever found."

Ellis previously predicted, ahead of the last state election, that "Labor will hold government, in a perhaps hung parliament, in NSW". Reverse Bob's predictions and he has Rolex reliability.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev could have used some reversing last Thursday night in Boston, where his brother Dzhokhar ran him over during a shootout with police. Sadly for those who wished the bombing suspects would turn out to be rednecks, the only knuckles being dragged were Tamerlan's, behind a stolen SUV.

Imagine if the brothers Tsarnaev were instead Otis and Crandall, Alabama boys who'd driven up to Boston for a final bloody showdown with Barack Obama's liberal America. Right now you'd be reading reports about the menace of fundamentalist Christianity.Alas, both Tsarnaev boys were of the Islamic faith, a fact that sends media analysis into "we cannot know" mode.

Recall the Fort Hood slaughter of 2009, when Nidal Malik Hasan screamed "Allahu Akbar" before murdering 13 people. That's a clue right there, but one subsequent piece of mature analysis began with the line: "The motive for the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage that has left America reeling is still unclear." A Guardian writer dismissed Hasan's Islamic vow: "My understanding is that it's something Arab people often shout before doing something or other. It's used in many different situations." Such as opening fire on infidels.

Hasan was 39 at the time of his motiveless attack, which should give pause to Sunrise presenter and apparent terrorism expert Andrew O'Keefe. "When you look back over ... the history of terrorism in the United States, the common link is not Islam. It's young men," O'Keefe said on Saturday.

Why, O'Keefe has cracked the case wide open! September 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta: just 33. Fellow 9/11 hijacker Hani Hanjour: only 29. Khalid al-Mihdhar: a mere lad of 26, the same age as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was wearing explosives and SUV tyre marks when he was converted from young man to dead irritant.

The usual next step in any terrorism talk seeking to evade harsh views of Islam is to spread the blame. Sunrise host Sam Armytage asked guest Keith Suter. "Why would someone who pretty much has had an American education and upbringing perform an act of terrorism like this?" Suter's response: "This is the big mystery. Why do these people end up getting radicalised? Is it something about living in the local culture?" Yep. It's still America's fault.

The Boston Globe's Kevin Cullen was on radio the morning after the big Tsarnaev hunt: "A caller came on the air and started talking about how we've got to look in the mirror and ask what we as Americans have done to create angry young men like this."

There are those young men again. A mature investigation might look at another common factor. Whatever could it be?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shot himself in throat in botched suicide attempt during last stand with police, unable to talk due to his damaged larynx

Cornered Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shot himself in the throat in a botched suicide attempt during his last stand with armed police, it was claimed last night.

FBI interrogators are desperate to question the 19-year-old to find out if anyone else was involved in last week’s deadly attacks.

But Chechen-born Dzohkhar, who remains in a serious condition in the same hospital as 11 of his victims, is unable to talk due to his damaged larynx following Friday’s huge manhunt.

A source close to the investigation said: “Dzhokhar can’t speak due to his injuries.

"He will be asked to indicate his answers by any means possible – either writing them down or even blinking with his eyes to say yes or no.”

It is thought the teenager placed a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger in a desperate bid to avoid capture and a possible death penalty.

Reports say the bullet passed through his throat, just missing his spinal cord, and came out the back of his neck.

Dzhokhar and older brother Tamerlan, who it emerged was married to American Katherine Russell, 24, detonated two bombs just yards from the finishing line of the Boston Marathon last Monday, killing three people and injuring 178.

And yesterday investigators revealed that the brothers were planning other attacks after finding a cache of weapons at the scene of Thursday’s shootout, in which Tamerlan, 26 – who was wearing an explosive vest – was shot dead by police.

Boston police chief Ed Davis said the pair had been carrying six bombs, handguns and a rifle.

An improvised explosive was also found in the Mercedes the pair had car-jacked...

April 23

Boston officials: Total of 264 people injured and 3 people killed in the attack

A total of 264 people injured in last week's bomb attack at the Boston Marathon were treated at 26 hospitals in the days following the attack, the Boston Public Health Commission said on Tuesday. Three people died in the attack.

Authorities have revised the number of injured several times over the past week as additional cases proved to be linked to the explosions on April 15. The latest count is higher than earlier estimates and reflects patients who may not have sought medical help at the scene but later checked in to hospitals in the area, said Nick Martin, a spokesman for the commission.

"There are people that, I think, felt like they had minor injuries right after and they realized their symptoms weren't going away," Martin said...

The news comes as it was revealed the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam, but were not apparently connected to any Islamist terrorist groups.

US officials have interrogated and charged the surviving brother with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

The 19-year-old remains in a serious condition with a gunshot wound to his throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway.

His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died on Friday after a fierce gun battle with police.

Tsarnaev was charged in his hospital bed with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction.

He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people a week ago.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the US for about a decade, practised Islam.

Two US officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism, but were apparently not involved with Islamist terrorist organisations...

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators his older brother Tamerlan was the driving force behind last week's attack and that no international terrorist groups were behind them, a U.S. government source said Monday.

Preliminary interviews with Tsarnaev indicate the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalized jihadists, the source said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, has said his brother -- who was killed early Friday -- wanted to defend Islam from attack, according to the source.

The government source cautioned that the interviews were preliminary, and that Tsarnaev's account needs to be checked out and followed up on by investigators.

And a federal law enforcement official told CNN that while investigators have seen nothing yet to indicate the suspects were working with anyone else, a lot of work remains before they can say confidently that no others were involved. That official would not comment on any motive or specifics on what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has communicated to officials.

The 19-year-old has been charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death. He was heavily sedated and on a ventilator at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, but was "alert, mentally competent and lucid" during the brief initial court appearance at his bedside on Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler found.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev displayed pattern of abuse and violence toward women, according to police records and those who knew him

Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev displayed a disturbing pattern of verbal abuse and violence toward women that included fits of rage against his wife and an arrest in 2009 for slapping a previous girlfriend, according to police records and accounts from those who knew him.

Close friends of his wife Katherine Russell, 24, claimed today that Tsarnaev, 26, was combative, angry and controlling.

His wife hasn't spoken publicly about her husband since he was killed in a shootout with police early Friday morning. But it appears she spoke to federal authorities for the first time on Tuesday, after she was spotted leaving her Rhode Island family home with her lawyer and three federal investigators. She returned home nearly four hours later with her mother...

"He was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion,” former brother-in-law explains the Boston bomber's ironic motives

When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev spoke to investigators on Sunday, officials said, he indicated that he and his brother had learned to make the pressure-cooker bombs that they used at the marathon from Inspire, the online Al Qaeda magazine.

The magazine’s first issue came out in mid-2010, and contained bomb-making instructions in articles with titles like “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” Intelligence officials identified Samir Khan, a 24-year-old American, as the editor of the publication.

Mr. Khan, who grew up in Queens and North Carolina, proclaimed in the magazine in 2010 that he was “proud to be a traitor to America.” He was killed in the drone strike in Yemen in September 2011 that killedAnwar al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni-American cleric who officials said was one of the Qaeda group’s top leaders and propagandists.. . .
Elmirza Khozhugov, 26, the ex-husband of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s younger sister, Ailina, said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been enamored of conspiracy theories, and that he was also concerned by the wars in the Middle East.

“He was looking for connections between the wars in the Middle East and oppression of Muslim population around the globe,” Mr. Khozhugov said in an e-mail. “It was very hard to argue with him on themes somehow connected to religion. On the other hand, he did not hate Christians. He respected their faith. Never said anything bad about other religions. But he was angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.”

April 24

'I don't care if my son is killed! I don't care if I am killed! I will say Allahu akbar!' - bombers' mother's bizarre rant

The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has launched into a bizarre rant in which she claims she does not care if she or her youngest son are killed by U.S. authorities.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Dagestan, Russia, said in an emotional telephone interview that she believes her sons, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, have been framed for the bombings.

Her eldest son, 26-year-old Tamerlan, died after a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts on Friday, while her youngest, Dzhokhar, 19, is in hospital recovering from a wound to the neck.

'If they are going to kill him, I don't care,' she told CNN of Dzhokhar. 'My oldest one is killed, so I don't care. I don't care is my youngest one is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this.

'And I don't care if I am going to get killed too. And I will say Allahu akbar!'...

Bomb suspects mosque has ties to terrorists, first mosque president convicted on assassination plot against Saudi prince

The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque's first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.

Its sister mosque in Boston, known as the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, has invited guests who have defended terrorism suspects. A former trustee appears in a series of videos in which he advocates treating gays as criminals, says husbands should sometimes beat their wives and calls on Allah (God) to kill Zionists and Jews, according to Americans for Peace and Tolerance, an interfaith group that has investigated the mosques...

Tamerlan was living on taxpayer-funded welfare benefits as he was delving deep into "radical anti-American Islamism"

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.

State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.

In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.

The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money.

Relatives and news reports have indicated that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s descent into extremist Islam began around 2008 or 2009, when the ethnic Chechen met a convert identified only as “Misha,” began to become more devout, and sought out jihadist and conspiracy theorist websites, and the rabidly anti-Semitic propaganda tract, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

CIA pushed to have one of the suspects placed on a U.S. counter-terrorism watch list more than a year before the attack

The CIA pushed to have one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers placed on a U.S. counterterrorism watch list more than a year before the attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Russian authorities contacted the CIA in the fall of 2011 and raised concerns that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed last week in a confrontation with police, was seen as an increasingly radical Islamist who could be planning to travel overseas.

The CIA request led the National Counterterrorism Center to add Tsarnaev’s name to a database known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, that is used to feed information to other lists, including the FBI’s main terrorist screening database.

The CIA’s request came months after the FBI had closed a preliminary inquiry into Tsarnaev after getting a similar warning from Russian state security, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The disclosure of the CIA’s involvement suggests that the U.S. government may have had more reason than it has previously acknowledged to scrutinize Tsarnaev in the months leading up to the bombing in Boston. It also raises questions why U.S. authorities didn’t flag his return to the United States and investigate him further after a seven-month trip he took to Russia last year...

The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects ranted that her sons were being framed for the terrorist attack, describing the scene of carnage as a 'really big play' with 'paint instead of blood'.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was on the verge of hysteria when she told a press conference on Thursday that she does not accept that her sons carried out the attacks in Boston on April 15 which left three people dead and 264 injured.

She gestured wildly, making a gesture of her hands being cuffed, as she sat alongside her husband Anzor. She said that she regretted living in the U.S.

Chechen Muslims in Vienna hold gender-segregated demonstration outside of the US Embassy in support of the Boston bomber

Around 40 people demonstrated for the Boston bombers.

Vienna Chechens called upon their compatriots via Facebook to protest outside the U.S. Embassy. They demanded solidarity for the Boston bombers, and solidarity for Muslims and Chechens, because of allegations that the FBI had falsified evidence against the brothers. The "Pro-Tsarnaev" Rally had called for the demonstration via Facebook.

The police went in the afternoon, and assumed that the demo would remain on a small scale. Roadblocks were not planned.

Finally, about 4:30PM, around 40 peaceful demonstrators marched toward a large contingent of police. Men and women demonstrated separately. Among the protesters were both female veil wearers and women in Western dress.

"We are convinced of the innocence of our brother. There is no evidence that he is guilty. America needs a new enemy," read the Chechens' signs...

April 26

Surviving suspect moved to a prison medical center, while body of his older brother remains unclaimed

The surviving suspect in last week's Boston Marathon bombing was moved to a prison medical center outside Boston on Friday, while the body of his older brother who died in a shootout with police remained unclaimed, officials said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old ethnic Chechen charged with the bombing that killed three people and wounded 264, was moved from the hospital where he was kept under guard since he was arrested, badly wounded, a week ago, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

New details emerged on Friday about Dzhokhar and older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev's movements the evening of April 18 after authorities identified the pair publicly in photos as the suspects in the bombing attack.

The Boston Globe published an interview with a 26-year-old Chinese man whose car they hijacked and briefly intended to drive to New York for another bombing before they stopped for gas, allowing their captive to escape.

"I don't want to die," the man, who the Globe identified only by his English nickname Danny, recounted as telling them. "I have a lot of dreams that haven't come true yet."

He kept the brothers calm by playing up his outsider status although at first they were puzzled by his Chinese accent, the Globe said. After determining that he was Chinese, Tamerlan Tsarnaev identified himself as a Muslim, the newspaper reported.

"Chinese are very friendly to Muslims!" Danny said, according to the Globe. "We are so friendly to Muslims."

One of the three people who died in the bombing was Chinese, 23-year-old graduate student Lingzi Lu. An 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard, and 29-year-old restaurant manager Krystle Campbell were also killed in the attack...

Bombers' mother not expected in the US, she's wanted on 2012 felony charges of shoplifting and property damage in Massachusetts

Her husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, said Thursday that he expected to fly soon from Dagestan to the United States.

But those plans may be in limbo after Zubeidat Tsarnaev said she'd called an ambulance Thursday to take her husband to a hospital in Makhachkala. It was not immediately known whether Anzor Tsarnaev was ever admitted to a hospital and, if so, if he is still there.

If he ever makes it to the United States, his wife is not expected to be with him.
Zubeidat Tsarnaev is wanted on 2012 felony charges of shoplifting and property damage in Massachusetts, according to court officials.

The family lived there before she jumped bail, and they moved the same year to Dagestan, a semi-autonomous region of Russia, officials said.

She told Paton Walsh that she would like to travel to the United States. "I really want to see how it is going to end," she said. "I want to see my Tamerlan, if it's possible."

The felony charges weren't "a big deal" and are unimportant to her, she said.

Mother of Boston bombers already on a US government terrorism database, added 18 months before bombings

U.S. intelligence agencies added the mother of the Boston bombing suspects to a government terrorism database 18 months before the bombings, two officials told The Associated Press. She called it "lies and hypocrisy" and said she has never been linked to crimes or terrorism.

The CIA asked for the Boston terror suspect and his mother to be added to a terrorist database in the fall of 2011, after the Russian government contacted the agency with concerns that both had become religious militants, according to officials briefed on the investigation. About six months earlier, the FBI investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, also at Russia's request, one of the officials said. The FBI found no ties to terrorism.

The revelation that the FBI had also investigated Tsarnaeva and the CIA arranged for her to be added to the terrorism database deepened the mystery around the family. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who immigrated to the Boston area in the past 11 years.

April 27

Mother of Boston bombers talked about jihad with now-dead son in 2011 recordings captured by Russian authorities

The mother of the accused Boston Marathon bombers was secretly recorded discussing jihad in a telephone conversation with her now dead-son, officials said Saturday.

The call between Zubeidat Tsarnaev and 26-year-old Tamerlan was intercepted by Russian wiretaps in early 2011.

But the information was not shared with American authorities at the time, officials said.

In a second call, also recorded by a Russian internal security service, the mother was captured talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.

The conversations raise new questions about the warnings that the Russians sounded to American authorities about Tamerlan in 2011.

At the time, the Russians told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists.

The FBI conducted a limited investigation of Tamerlan, found no terror ties and closed the case in June 2011.

But had the Russians made clear that the former boxer had been recorded talking about jihad, they might have prompted the FBI to carry out a more vigorous investigation.

Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.

After Russian officials sounded the alarm about Tamerlan’s radical Islamist views to the CIA in late 2011, the agency recommended putting him on a watch list.

The spy agency shared its concerns with the FBI, Homeland Security, the State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center, a U.S. intelligence official said.

April 28

In a tapped telephone conversation between one of the Boston bombing suspects and his mother, Russian authorities who secretly recorded the conversation in 2011 have disclosed how the suspect vaguely discussed jihad.

The mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to 'Palestine,' but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the Associate Press, citing officials who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.
In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on 26-year-old Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva.

The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.

Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the Boston Marathon attack which killed three people.
It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.

Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.

"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy told The Associated Press. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.

But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school...

Irish Muslim convert who once threatened to kill Barack Obama says Boston Bombers gave Americans ‘a taste of their own medicine

An Irish Muslim who once threatened to kill Barack Obama has refused to condemn the Boston bombers and claimed they gave Americans ‘a taste of their own medicine’.

Khalid Kelly, a 46-year-old from Dublin, made the controversial remarks in an exclusive interview with the Irish Sun newspaper.

In the course of the interview, he refused to condemn Chechen terror brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the attack which killed three people including an eight-year-old boy.

Nicknamed Taliban Terry, Kelly told the paper that he was not surprised by the attack, the first on US soil since 9/11.

And he told Americans to be glad nobody else had died in the marathon bomb.

Kelly said: “Thousands of Muslims are being killed every day from Syria to Afghanistan.

“A lot of them are being murdered at the hands of the Americans, and they never have a minute’s silence.

“Where are the tears for these people? Three people get killed and they have a big day of remembrance. They should remember the people they are killing.

“This is a war and they should be thankful that it wasn’t more.”

Formerly known as Terence Kelly, the converted Muslim warned of more attacks on American soil.

He said: “Sheikh Osama Bin Laden said that until the last soldier leaves our land, you will never enjoy one day of security. And his words are coming through now.

“They are worried all the time and they should be worried. As long as you are killing people, then you will be killed.

“This is a taste of the same medicine that America is dishing out around the world.”

The report says that Dubliner Kelly converted to Islam while serving a jail sentence in Saudi Arabia for illegally distilling and selling alcohol.. . .He claimed: “Michael Collins was celebrated on the Late Late Show on TV a few years ago as a hero, but 100 years ago he was a terrorist.

“At a later stage, the IRA said it would have a bigger effect on the English if we bombed them at home. And it did.

“They went to London and it was very effective. I think that is what is happening at the moment. You have come to our homeland and are bombing and killing Muslims.

“If people cannot get to the Jihad, what are they going to do? They are going to fight the enemy where they can find them.

“Whether it is right or not I don’t know, but I’m telling you what is happening. And in America, where they have easy access to weapons, it’s honestly surprising that it’s not happening every week.”

April 29

US and UK intensify search for editor of al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine, after its bomb-making recipes were followed by Boston Bombers

The CIA is believed to have stepped up efforts to find Yahya Ibrahim, a jihadist who has edited Inspire since the magazine's founding editor-in-chief was killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving Boston bomber, has reportedly confessed to investigators that he and his brother, Tamerlan, learned how to build explosives by reading the controversial online publication.

The Tsarnaevs killed three people and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the Boston marathon by detonating bombs in pressure-cookers, as had been recommended in the magazine.

An FBI analysis obtained by NBC News found that bombs thrown at police by the brothers during their later shoot-out also matched instructions from an article titled "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom".

Officials fear that while senior al-Qaeda leaders have been set back by President Barack Obama's "targeted killing" campaign, further low-level plotters may be provoked to act by the magazine.

"Inspire clearly is a powerful propaganda tool," a CIA source told The Daily Telegraph, adding officials were concerned about its ability to push "potential jihadists to conduct violent action"
.
"I can guarantee you there is a significant effort to figure out who is putting this out," Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism official now of the Third Way think-tank, told The Daily Telegraph.

"They are intensifying investigations into who is behind this publication, and where the money for it is coming from," added Philip Giraldi, former senior CIA officer.

Ibrahim, who writes his articles and editor's letters in Americanised English, is believed to be a nom de guerre for a propagandist tied to the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

FBI search home of Boston bomber's widow and 'take sample of her DNA after that of a woman is found on one of the devices'

FBI agents have visited the Rhode Island home of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife Katherine Russell reportedly to take a sample of her DNA after traces of a woman were found on one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks.

Spokesman Jason Pack confirmed that agents investigating the Boston bombings visited the North Kingstown home of Russell's parents, where Tsarnaev's widow has been staying since the attacks.

According to The Wall Street Journal, agents went to the house to collect a DNA sample from Russell in a bid to rule out her involvement in the bombings.

An official close to the case told the newspaper that female DNA has been found on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks. Though investigators haven't determined whose DNA it is or whether the DNA means a woman helped the two suspects carry out the bombings.. . .After agents left the home, Russell left with her attorneys through a separate door. She was later photographed smiling as she left a Providence law center with her attorney.

Her attorneys have previously said she and her family were in shock when they learned of the allegations against her husband and brother-in-law, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.. . .Russell, 24, converted to Islam before marrying Tsarnaev and having his child.
MailOnline revealed last week that she was arrested in 2007 for stealing $67 worth of clothing from an Old Navy store in Warwick, Rhode Island.

And in an intriguing twist, Russell, who was 18 at the time, told officers she was married though she was living at her parent’s North Kingstown home and did not meet Tsranaev until some two years later.

The revelation raised fresh questions over the past and character of the 'all-American girl' 'brainwashed' according to some, by her fanatic husband.

Russell was arrested along with an unnamed female minor on 26 June 2007. Then, according to a police report, she was 'skinny' with hazel eyes and red or auburn hair – now firmly concealed by the Hijab. She is described as unemployed and married...

Former girlfriend of Tsarnaev reveals how he forced her to wear Islamic clothing, pray to Allah and hit her when she wore western clothes

Nadine Ascencao, 24, has spoken of how Tsarnaev forced her to wear Islamic clothing, pray to Allah and hit her when she wore western clothes.

"He became extremely religious and tried to brainwash me to follow Islam," said Miss Ascencao.

"Tamerlan said I couldn't be with him unless I became Muslim, he wanted me to hate America like he did," she told The Sun.

Miss Ascencao, who dated Tsarnaev for three years whilst they attended Cambridge Ridge and Latin School, also spoke of how the Boston bomber made a swift transformation from high-school student to religious fanatic.

"One minute he's this funny, normal guy who liked boxing and having fun, the next he is praying four times a day, watching Islamic videos and talking insane nonsense.

"He wouldn't let me watch TV or listen to the radio. He'd say, 'TV is the project of Satan' and claimed Satan sent us messages through commercial music," the 24-year-old said.

Miss Ascencao, who began dating Tsarnaev in 2006 when she was 17, also spoke of how she considered converting to Islam in order to please her former-partner.

"I went to his mosque a couple of times and even looked into converting to make him happy. I thought, 'This is crazy', but I still did it for him.

"Tamerlan had taken my virginity and said he loved me because I was pure and hadn't been with any other guys. I was in love and scared he'd leave me if I didn't do what he said. Looking back I had a lucky escape," the former-girlfriend said.

Miss Ascencao also revealed how the Chechen immigrant had once angrily attacked her for wearing a low-cut top and cut-off jeans while on her way to a friend's pool party.

"He was shouting and screaming at me. He slapped me across the face really hard." Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed by police during a shoot-out in Watertown, Massachusetts on April 19.

Miss Ascencao revealed how she learned of her former-boyfriend's death when FBI officers arrived at her house asking question about Tamerlan and his brother Dzhokhar...

May 1

Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document.

The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.

Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev's plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.

Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. denies claims made by senior Saudi government official

The Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C. today denied its government warned the U.S. about accused Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

According to a highly placed source who spoke to MailOnline, the Saudis sent a written warning about Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012. That was long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds.

The official told MailOnline about a written warning from the Saudi government to the Department of Homeland Security, and said he had direct knowledge of that document.

But the Middle Eastern nation's embassy in Washington denied that account on Wednesday...

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the Boston bomber’s widow, tells their daughter the killer has "gone to heaven"

The death of a parent is hard for any child to comprehend, but it is almost impossible when Daddy was the Boston Marathon bomber suspect.

Katherine Russell was left a widow and single mother after her husband Tamerlan Tsarnaev was fingered for the April 15 explosion at the marathon and she has been forced to tell her three-year-old daughter what happened.

“Daddy has gone to heaven and he still loves her very much,” is the message Katherine told Zahara after Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police in Watertown, Massachusetts, a relative revealed to People magazine.

“She broke the news as gently as possible, but Zahara wants to know why.”

The reasons that led to Tamerlan’s dramatic and violent death will be a lot harder to explain for Katherine, 24, who family members claim was “blindsided” by the deadly plot that he and brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, masterminded, but the FBI is are still investigating how much the Islamic convert really knew...

Tsarnaev family, including both bombers, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance

THE Tsarnaev family, including the suspected terrorists and their parents, benefited from more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded assistance - a bonanza ranging from cash and food stamps to housing from 2002 to 2012.

"The breadth of the benefits the family was receiving was stunning, said a person with knowledge of documents handed over to a legislative committee Monday, The Boston Herald reports.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 and his younger brother Dzhokhar are accused of carrying out the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded more than 264 at one of the world's premier sporting events.

The state has handed over more than 500 documents to the 11-member House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, which Monday met for the first time and plans to call in officials from the Department of Transitional Assistance to testify.

"I can assure members of the public that this committee will actively review every single piece of information we can find because clearly the public has a substantial right to know what benefits, if any, this family or individuals accused of some horrific crimes were receiving, said state Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, the committee's chairman.

Linsky's committee has requested documents from the DTA, the state's Medicaid director and Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz. But so far the committee has not released the records publicly, citing a privilege the DTA is asserting under state law...

Robel Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators. None of the three are implicated in plotting the attacks.

Three people died and 264 were wounded in the 15 April marathon blasts.

Mr Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old student, has been charged over the bombings. His 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, was killed during a shootout with police.

'Lol'

The three 19-year-olds accused of hindering police investigators appeared in Boston federal court on Wednesday.

Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev are charged with destroying evidence.

Mr Phillipos, a US citizen, is accused of making false statements to investigators.

They were remanded in custody as a prosecutor argued they all presented a "serious risk of flight".

If convicted, Mr Kadyrbayev and Mr Tazhayakov face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 (£160,000) fine, while Mr Phillipos faces up to eight years in prison and a similar fine.

According to the affidavit, Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev removed items from the suspect's dormitory room at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth, three days after the blasts.

When TV news reports aired photos of the bombing suspects, released by the FBI, Mr Kadyrbayev allegedly texted Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to say that he resembled the suspect.

Mr Tsarnaev's response included the phrases "lol" and "you better not text me".

According to the charge sheet, he also texted Mr Kadyrbayev: "I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it."

Mr Kadyrbayev's lawyer said his client did not immediately think that Mr Tsarnaev was the suspect in the FBI images, and that he did not realise the backpack was evidence.

However, the FBI said that Mr Kadyrbayev knew when he saw a backpack containing fireworks which had been opened and emptied of powder that Mr Tsarnaev was involved in the bombings.

Student visas 'violation'

The affidavit says Mr Kadyrbayev told authorities that he and his two co-accused "collectively decided to throw the backpack and fireworks into the trash because they did not want Tsarnaev to get into trouble".

Mr Kadyrbayev also decided to remove Mr Tsarnaev's laptop "because he did not want Tsarnaev's roommate to think he was stealing or behaving suspiciously by just taking the backpack", the FBI said in court papers.

Mr Kadyrbayev said he placed the backpack and fireworks along with rubbish from the apartment in a large refuse sack and threw it into a bin near the men's apartment.

Investigators say they later found the backpack, along with a homework assignment sheet from a class that Mr Tsarnaev attended, in a landfill.

The court papers do not say what happened to the laptop.

Mr Tazhayakov said that Mr Tsarnaev had explained to the two Kazakhs a month before the attacks that he knew how to make a bomb, according to the affidavit.

Mr Tazhayakov and Mr Kadyrbayev have been held in jail for more than a week for allegedly violating their student visas.

University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth said in a statement on Wednesday that Mr Tazhayakov had been suspended pending the outcome of the case...

Tamerlan’s mother and widow both thieves: Police release mugshot of widow following her arrest six years ago

Police have just released a mugshot for Tamerlan Tsarnaev‘s widow Katherine Russell, following her arrest six years ago on shoplifting charges.

Russell, then 18, was arrested in connection with the theft of $67 worth of merchandise from a Warwick, R.I. Old Navy. The charge was eventually dismissed after she paid a $200 fine and did her allotted community service.. . .

Russell’s not the only accused thief in the Tsarnaev family tree, as the Tamerlan’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was taken into custody last year in connection with stealing $1,600 worth of clothes. She has since cited the arrest as a reason she does not want to return to the U.S.

May 3

Boston bombing suspects originally intended attacks for July 4th, early completion of making bombs advanced the date

The official said the suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, advanced the date of their attack because they completed building bombs more quickly then they originally anticipated. The official declined to be identified and did not offer more details.

Police say the brothers detonated two bombs made with pressure-cookers in the April 15 attack on the Boston Marathon that killed three people and wounded 264.

An attack on Boston’s packed July 4 celebrations would have carried the extra symbolism of disrupting the city’s widely followed Independence Day celebrations.

Citing unnamed officials, The Boston Globe reported on its website that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger brother who was captured by police four days after the bombing, told investigators the pair discussed detonating their explosives at the city’s famed celebration on its Charles River Esplanade.

News of the alleged July 4 attack plan and other details supplied by Tsarnaev to investigators was earlier reported by The New York Times and other media outlets.

NBC News, also citing unnamed officials, reported Tsarnaev told investigators the bombs were made in the home of his brother Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with police early on April 19.

The Times reported the ethnic Chechen brothers also considered suicide attacks and that they had viewed online sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born cleric who was killed by an American drone strike in Yemen in 2011. There is no indication the brothers communicated with Awlaki, however, the newspaper reported on its website.

What, if any, ties the two suspects had with foreign militants is a key question for investigators trying to determine how the pair became radicalized. How they selected their target would also shed light on their mindset.

Mitch Silber, executive managing director at K2 Intelligence and former head of intelligence analysis at the New York City Police Department, said a July 4 attack in Boston might have been more deadly given the fact that greater numbers of people gather for the city’s annual celebration.

Former federal prosecutor Mark Rasch said a July 4 attack would have sent a stronger message.

“The essence of terrorism is all about symbolism,” Rasch said. “The Boston Marathon just does not have as much of a symbolic feeling as the Fourth of July to the United States.”...

Authorities have found an electronic version of the Al Qaeda magazine 'Inspire' at the home of a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, however it's unclear whether it was discovered on the technology belonging to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, or Tamerlan's widow, Katherine Russell. Sources also revealed Friday evening that Russell communicated with her husband after the attacks and while investigators were trying to find him. All the while, Russell did not at any point contact investigators, it is believed.

Catherine Herridge reported on the communication, adding that one source says the back-and-forth between herself and the suspect included at least one phone call and possibly an email that included an attachment which was a photo of Tsarnaev released by the FBI.

The magazine 'Inspire' is widely known for its radical writings and past articles that included detailed instructions on how to make bombs and explosive devices.

Media ignores Tsarnaev’s connection to his college’s MSA, a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and a local al-Qaida-linked imam

Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing has ignored admitted bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s connection to his college’s Muslim Student Association, a group that has close relations with both the Muslim Brotherhood and a local imam friendly with an al-Qaida operative.

Although a student leader and the mainstream media have downplayed Tsarnaev’s ties to the the group, Tsarnaev associated frequently with the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

The Washington Post on April 27 reported that Tsarnaev, who has admitted his role in the Marathon terrorist bombing to police, played intramural soccer with MSA members, contradicting earlier reports that the U. Mass-Dartmouth student spurned an invitation to join the controversial Muslim Brotherhood-linked student organization.

“For a time, Jahar played on an intramural soccer team composed of students involved with the campus Muslim Student Association,” explained the Post’s Marc Fisher, a fact that has since been missing from coverage.

In fact, Tsarnaev played soccer with the Muslim Student Association nearly every week, according to MSA Secretary Bassel Nasri in an interview with George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer on April 19, 2013. Nasri simply neglected to say they were MSA games. Although Stephanopoulos described Nasri as “a soccer buddy” of Tsarnaev, neither he nor Sawyer mentioned that they were co-religionists and that the soccer games were organized by the Muslim Student Association.

Nasri was later interviewed by CNN and again didn’t mention that he had known Tsarnaev through the Muslim Student Association’s weekly soccer games.

“We used to play soccer together,” Nasri told Piers Morgan. “We used to hang out a few times. We weren’t too close — we were more acquaintances than friends. But he was really mostly a pretty good guy in that sense. He would always like ask for — if you needed any help with anything. So I’m really surprised at the outcome of what happened in the past week or so.”

A day later, Nasri told 60 Minutes that he tried to recruit Tsarnaev to the Muslim Student Association, without any luck. He left out that the soccer games where Tsarnaev was a regular player were MSA activities. He even seemed to suggest to Scott Pelley that had Tsarnaev joined MSA more seriously, the bombing wouldn’t have happened. According to the 60 Minutes report:

These friends saw him two weeks ago. He was a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Ahmad Nassri and Bassel Nasri tried, without luck to get him to join the MSA, the Muslim Student Association.

Scott Pelley: Did you see him at mosque? You see him at prayers? Nothing like that?

Group: No.

Bassel Nasri: No, unfortunately.

Scott Pelley: Unfortunately?

Bassel Nasri: I would’ve loved for him to come to the MSA a few times so he can maybe understand his religion better. Maybe that would, that would’ve helped in what happened, I would say.

Assuming Nasri is telling the truth — he, along with half a dozen other MSA members and their faculty sponsor, Neil Fennessey, did not return request for comments — he is wrong about the Muslim Student Association’s not being a haven for radicalism, explains David Reaboi, vice president of strategic communications at the Center for Security Policy...

May 4

Relatives of the deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect will claim his body now that his wife has agreed to release it, an uncle said Tuesday.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body has been at the medical examiner's office in Massachusetts since he died after a gunfight with authorities more than a week ago.

Amato DeLuca, the Rhode Island attorney for his widow, Katherine Russell, said in a statement Tuesday that his client had just learned that the medical examiner was ready to release Tsarnaev's body and that she wants it released to the Tsarnaev family.

Police said Tsarnaev ran out of ammunition before his brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene. His cause of death has been determined but will not be made public until his remains are claimed.

"Of course, family members will take possession of the body," uncle Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. "We'll do it. We will do it. A family is a family."

He would not elaborate. Tsarnaev's parents are still in Russia, but he has other relatives on his side of the family in the U.S., including Tsarni.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lies in a prison hospital after being wounded in the shootout with police as he and his brother made their getaway attempt. He is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, a crime that carries a potential death sentence.

DeLuca said Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow met with law enforcement "for many hours over the past week" and will continue cooperating. FBI agents on Monday visited her parents' North Kingstown, R.I., home, where she has been staying, and carried away several bags. Until Tuesday's statement, DeLuca had declined to provide any details about Russell's contact with authorities, except to say that Russell was doing everything she could to assist with the investigation.

In addition to declining to claim the body herself, which is her right as his spouse, Russell has taken other steps to distance herself from Tsarnaev since taking refuge at her family's home on April 19, hours after her husband was killed. Her family released a statement shortly after she was escorted home by federal agents that day saying they "never really knew" Tsarnaev. Russell has also reverted to using her maiden name instead of the name listed on her marriage certificate, Tsarnaeva...

Tamerlan Tsarnaev's cause of death released, 'gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso'

A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, his death certificate says.

Worcester funeral home owner Peter Stefan has 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body and read details from his death certificate on Friday. The certificate cites Tsarnaev's "gunshot wounds of torso and extremities" and lists the time of his death as 1:35 a.m. on April 19, four days after the deadly bombing, Stefan said.

Tsarnaev died after a gunfight with authorities who had launched a massive manhunt for him and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago. Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his younger brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing.

Tsarnaev's family on Friday was making arrangements for his funeral as investigators searched the woods near a college attended by 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured less than a day after his brother's death.

The funeral parlor in Worcester is familiar with Muslim services and said it will handle arrangements for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday night.

The body was taken initially to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, an hour's drive west of Boston, said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of his or her death and he is prepared for protests.. . .Boston police said they planned to review security procedures for the Independence Day Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, which draws a crowd of more than 500,000 annually and is broadcast to a national TV audience. Authorities plan to look at security procedures for large events held in other cities, notably the massive New Year's Eve celebration held each year in New York City's Times Square, Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio said.

Gov. Deval Patrick said everything possible will be done to assure a safe event...

May 5

Al Qaeda magazine found on bomber's widow's laptop, along with traces of explosive residue throughout her home

Federal officials investigating the Boston bombings have discovered radical Islamist materials on a computer belonging to the widow of the deceased suspect, it has been revealed.

Katherine Russell, 24, has repeatedly claimed through her attorney that she knew nothing about the deadly April 15 bombings allegedly set off by her late husband, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar.

However, the discovery of al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine on Russell’s computer, along with the presence of explosive residue throughout their home, have raised new questions about Russell's possible involvement in the act of terror.

According to a government document obtained by NBC News, an analysis of the bombs used at the Boston Marathon and pipe bombs that the Tsarnaevs had allegedly thrown at police may have been built following instructions that appeared in an Inspire article titled: Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.

Officials have yet to determine whether the Islamist files found in Russell’s possession belonged to the 24-year-old mother, her late 26-year-old husband or a third party, a source told The Washington Post.. . .
Meanwhile, CNN reported that investigators inspecting Russell and Tsranaev's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, found traces of explosive residue in the kitchen sink, the bathtub and on a table.

Following his arrest, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told police that he and his older brother built the pressure cooker bombs in the basement of the Cambridge residence.

It was established earlier this week that female DNA found one a piece of an explosive device used in the attacks did not match Russell's, but rather belonged to a department store clerk where the siblings had purchased the pressure cookers.

In another development in the case, federal and state law enforcement officials accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs scoured a wooded area near Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended college, in search of new evidence possibly related to the attacks.

According to witness accounts, the brothers may have tested explosives in the woods two weeks before the bombings
It was revealed earlier this week that Tamerlan Tsarnaev called his wife in the hours after the FBI released surveillance images of him and his younger brother.

But only Russell knows what was said in the conversation, as she has stopped cooperating with authorities over recent days, the New York Times reported...

Authorities skeptical of bomber's widow's innocence, she stops co-operating after news of DNA evidence not belonging to her

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has stopped co-operating with authorities as it emerged female DNA found on one of the detonated bombs does not belong to her.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was later killed in a gunfight with authorities, called his wife in the hours after the FBI released surveillance images of him and his younger brother, Dzhokhar.

But only Katherine Russell, 24, knows what was said in the conversation, as she has stopped cooperating with authorities over recent days, the New York Times reported.

Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the widow of Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has stopped co-operating with authorities as it emerged female DNA found on one of the detonated bombs does not belong to her

Authorities are skeptical of Katherine Russell’s insistence that she played no role in the Boston attack or in helping the Tsarnaev brothers escape the authorities following the release of the photographs, the Times reported.

A source told CNN that the bombs were built in the apartment that Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with Katherine Russell and their 3-year-old daughter, Zahara. Residue samples were found on the kitchen table, the kitchen sink, and the bathtub, the source said.

Katherine Russell’s silence comes as sources told the newspaper that the fingerprints and female DNA found on at least one of the bombs did not belong to her. Authorities had taken a sample from her this week.

Spokesman Jason Pack confirmed that agents investigating the Boston bombings visited the North Kingstown home of Katherine Russell’s parents, where Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s widow has been staying since the Boston Marathon attacks.

May 8

Dagestani relative of Tsarnaev brothers is a prominent Islamist

Last year, when Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent six months in the Russian region of Dagestan, he had a guide with an unusually deep knowledge of the local Islamist community: a distant cousin named Magomed Kartashov. Six years older than Tsarnaev, Kartashov is a former police officer and freestyle wrestler — and one of the region’s most prominent Islamists.

In 2011, Kartashov founded and became the leader of an organization called the Union of the Just, whose members campaign for Shari‘a and pan-Islamic unity in Dagestan, often speaking out against U.S. policies across the Muslim world. The group publicly renounces violence. But some of its members have close links to militants; others have served time in prison for weapons possession and abetting terrorism — charges they say were based on fabricated evidence. For Tsarnaev, these men formed a community of pious young Muslims with whom he could discuss his ideas of jihad. Tsarnaev’s mother Zubeidat confirmed that her son is Kartashov’s third cousin. The two met for the first time in Dagestan, she said, and “became very close.”

Since April 19, when Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar were publicly identified as being the key suspects in the bombing of the Boston Marathon, investigators have been trying to work out how they were radicalized to the point of wanting to kill and maim people in the U.S., the country the brothers had called home for much of their lives. (Tsarnaev was killed during a manhunt for the two men in Boston; his younger brother was shot but survived and has been charged with acts of terrorism including using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death. If convicted he could face the death penalty.) Much of the investigators’ attention has focused on Tsarnaev’s visit to Dagestan in 2012. It appears that investigators have only recently begun exploring Tsarnaev’s links to his cousin...

May 10

Forensic evidence shows Tsarnaev brothers were involved in triple murder of Jews on September 11, 2011

Massachusetts investigators have developed what they call "mounting evidence," bolstered by "forensic hits," that point to the possible involvement of both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar in a gruesome, unsolved triple homicide in 2011, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The officials cautioned that until more definitive DNA testing is complete, it is still too early to consider bringing an indictment against the younger of the two brothers, who officials said has admitted his role in the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 260 more on April 15. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the Marathon bombing attack, but Dhzokhar survived and was captured.

Tamerlan was buried in secret, but a source familiar with the case confirmed for ABC News a report by The Boston Globe that said the 26-year-old was buried in Virginia.

In the wake of the Marathon bombings, Middlesex County began to probe a link between the elder Tsarnaev and Brendan Mess, one of the three men killed in the gruesome slaying on Sept. 11, 2011. Officials said Mess and two men were found in a Waltham residence with their throats slit and their bodies covered with marijuana. Tamerlan and Mess were once roommates and did boxing and martial arts training together.

Now law enforcement officials tell ABC News that some crime scene forensic evidence provided a match to the two Tsarnaev brothers. The officials also said records of cell phones used by the Tsarnaevs appears to put them in the area of the murders on that date. Several officials confirmed the new findings but declined to be identified because they are not authorized to comment on the ongoing investigation...

May 11

Bomber is secretly buried in Muslim cemetery in Virginia by Christian woman who claimed his body because 'Jesus says to love our enemies'

A Christian woman today revealed that she helped authorities coordinate the secret burial this week of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia.

'Jesus says [to] love our enemies,' Martha Mullen, 48, told the Boston Globe's Wesley Lowery in an exclusive interview. 'So I was sitting in Starbucks and thought, maybe I’m the one person who needs to do something.'

Tsarnaev was buried under a shroud of secrecy Wednesday evening at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery in central Virginia, about 15 miles from Richmond.

Mullen said she coordinated the clandestine burial with the help of the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond after a number of cemeteries refused to take his body.

Within an hour of contacting the group, she got a response saying a plot had been found. So she called the officials overseeing Tsarnaev's burial and arranged to have the body, which was being held at a Worcester, Mass. funeral home, transported to Virginia to be buried Wednesday evening.

The development has infuriated some residents of the rural Virginia town as well as members of the area's Islamic community who say they weren't consulted in the decision.

The whole Muslim community here is furious,' Imam Ammar Amonette of the Islamic Center of Virginia told the Associated Press. 'Frankly, we are furious that we were never given any information. It was all done secretly behind our backs.'

'Now everybody who's buried in that cemetery, their loved ones are going to have to go to that place,' he added.

News of the burial comes several days after a Massachusetts police chief went on national television to plead for help in finding a plot for the 26-year-old suspected bomber, as number of cemeteries and lawmakers in three states had turned down requests to bury his body.

'There is a need to do the right thing,' Worcester Police Chief Gary Gemme said. 'We are not barbarians. We bury the dead.'...

May 16

As he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote "F*** America" and "Praise Allah" on the boat's side panels

As police searched for him, and as he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote "F*** America" on the side panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News.

Officers said they also discovered the phrase "Praise Allah" on the boat's side panels and several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and "the infidels."

A Massachusetts official showed ABC News what he said was a cell phone picture of the phrase "Praise Allah," written in black ink, with a bullet hole above it, believed to have been written by Dzhokhar as he hid inside the boat in Watertown, Mass.

Also seen in the picture was the faintly written word "brother," which the official said was part of a reference by the younger Tsarnaev "that was something about his brother is lucky to be with Allah first."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed hours earlier during a shootout with police several blocks away from the location of the boat.
Spokespeople for the Massachusetts State Police and the Watertown police had denied the existence of the writings when first asked about them by ABC News two weeks ago.

Today, both departments referred reporters to the FBI. A federal law enforcement official confirmed reports first broadcast by CBS News that writings had been discovered inside the boat...

Boston Marathon suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev went target shooting at a Manchester firing range and met up with an exiled former Chechen rebel living in the Queen City a month before the attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, according to a Voice of America report.

FBI agents on Tuesday searched the Manchester home of Chechnya native Musa Khadzhimuratov, and examined the hard drives on his computers, VOA reported. Police in Manchester confirmed the FBI agents searched Khadzhimuratov's home, according to the story, but Manchester Police Chief David J. Mara said police will not confirm anything because it is not their case.

The FBI, Mara said, also are not commenting on the matter.

At the Manchester apartment building where Khadzhimuratov lives, a woman responding to the buzzer by intercom said Khadzhimuratov was not home and will not be talking to reporters.
A resident who lives at the Eastern Avenue apartment complex said the FBI showed up about 8 a.m. Tuesday and did not leave until late in the afternoon.

Agents dressed in suits were posted at the front and back entrance to the Eastern Avenue apartment building at Hillview Apartments, preventing people from entering the building, she said.

About six other agents wearing white jumpsuits and black gloves entered the apartment where Khadzhimuratov lives with his wife, her parents and two or three children.

"I thought they were exterminators," said the resident. She only realized they were FBI after someone overheard an agent telling one of Khadzhimuratov's children, "Don't get scared. We're FBI and we're going to talk to your father."...

A group of mainly teenage girls have been furiously tweeting under the hashtag #freejahar, as well as starting Facebook groups and blogs, filled with picture collages, love hearts and glittery graphics. Each of them dedicated to the accused terrorist.

It’s like he’s a pop star.

Thousands of girls tweet at the #freejahar hashtag every day. There are countless ‘Free Jahar’ Facebook pages, some with hundred and hundreds of members, mostly women and girls, who post photos to show their support for the accused bomber. Take a look:. . .
18-year-old Alisha, declared on Twitter earlier this week that she plans on getting one of Dzhokhar’s tweets (from before his arrest) tattooed on her arm.

Alisha has since stated that she will hold off on the tattoo for now, at the request of her family, but her constant tweeting shows that the obsession has by no means abated.

In an interview with The NY Post, she insists that she isn’t just a ‘fan girl’ but also someone who is genuinely concerned about Dzhokhar’s rights.

Alisha said she read all of his tweets and came to the conclusion he is innocent. “I don’t see it,” she says, regarding any possibility Tsarnaev was involved with the bombings….

For the more literary of these young women, there is even erotic fan fiction:

Like this:

"I didn’t know how much longer I could resist reaching up to brush aside the dark curly strands falling across his eyes."

And this:

"He’s laying on the bed, toying with his zipper while looking at me with dirty eyes. He knows that he’s the one in control and I’m his toy. He knows I want him so bad that it has taken over me."

May 22

The FBI was involved in what it called a "violent confrontation" in Orlando, Fla., early Wednesday that killed a Chechen man with ties to the older brother suspected in last month's deadly terrorist bombing at the Boston Marathon.

CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, a former FBI assistant director, reported on "CBS This Morning" that the man, Ibragim Todashev, was friends with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the attack that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

The FBI has not commented on the relationship between Todashev and Tsarnaev but confirmed that Todashev died in the shootout. Miller reports that, like Tsarnaev, who was once a boxer, Todashev was a mixed-martial-arts fighter.

In a statement Wednesday, the FBI didn't refer to Todashev by name but said that the individual who died was being interviewed in connection with the investigation into the April 15 attack. An FBI special agent was accompanied by two Massachusetts State Police troopers and other law-enforcement officers to interview Todashev in the apartment complex where he lived.

"In the encounter in the apartment, something went wrong," Miller said.

The FBI said that the interview subject initiated "a violent confrontation." The FBI said the agent "sustained non-life-threatening injuries" during the confrontation and was involved in the shooting but didn't provide any other details.

An official told CBS News that Todashev came at the agent with a knife.

Miller reported that the FBI went to the apartment after midnight Wednesday morning to question him. Todashev had been on the bureau's radar since Tsarnaev was identified as a suspect in the bombing...

May 23

Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in 2011 triple murder of Jews with Chechen killed during a confrontation with the FBI

Ibragim Todashev, who died during the interview with authorities, not only confessed to his direct role in slashing the throats of three people in Waltham, Massachusetts, but also fingered Tsarnaev in the deaths, the official said Wednesday.

Todashev was being questioned about the slayings and his acquaintance with Tsarnaev.

Todashev attacked an FBI agent, who shot him dead, a federal law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the case told CNN.

"He used some kind of weapon," the official said, and that prompted the FBI agent to shoot the suspect.

A second law enforcement official confirmed Todashev made the confession.

The unsolved triple murder received renewed interest after it was learned that Tsarnaev was sparring partners at a local gym with one of the victims.

Source: 2011 slayings of Tsarnaev friend, 2 others revisited

Investigators of the crime reported at the time that the heads of the three victims were pulled back and their throats slit ear to ear with great force. Marijuana was spread over the bodies in a "symbolic gesture," and several thousand dollars in cash was found at the scene.

Todashev told investigators the men were killed during a drug ripoff because he and Tsarnaev were afraid they would be able to identify them and tell police what happened, according to a law enforcement source.

So far, no link has been found between Todashev and the Boston Marathon bombings. However, the FBI is looking into the many connections between Todashev and Tsarnaev, whose radicalization allegedly led to the Boston bombings.

A federal law enforcement official has told CNN they were initially led to Todashev because they learned he knew Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar. They also said cell phone records connected Tamerlan and Todashev.

May 31

"The war is yet to cease, it has barely started," al-Qaeda magazine contains multiple articles praising Boston Marathon bombers

An English-language version of the spring 2013 issue of the online publication, obtained Thursday by NBC News, contains multiple articles praising alleged Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and one on last week’s gruesome knife slaying of a British soldier in London.

“When one looks at the terrific Boston Marathon operation and its aftermath, including the accusation of the two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, he understands how a single lone jihad operation can force America to stand on one foot and live in a terrified state, full of fear and rare restlessness,” reads one article under the byline Abu Abdillah Almoravid.

Unlike the last edition of the publication in March, which contained bomb-building recipes – including one using a pressure cooker, similar to the devices deployed near the marathon finish line – and other suggested methods for inflicting small-scale terrorism, the new 39-page issue has numerous pieces aimed at the American audience.

A “Letter from the Editor” warns, “Americans, you should understand this simple equation: as you kill you will be killed. The war is yet to cease, it has barely started. Yesterday it was Baghdad, today it is Boston. The question of ‘who and why’ should be kept aside, You should be asking, “Where is next?”

“Leave us with our religion, land and nations and mind your own internal affairs,” warns another titled “Message to the American Nation” and supposedly written by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Commander Qassim Ar-Relmy. “Save your economy, look after your concerns.”

The articles also contain numerous high-resolution photos showing the carnage at the Boston Marathon finish line after the bombing on April 15 and one showing the blood-covered suspect in the London slaying of British soldier Lee Rigby...

June & Onwards

Boston Marathon bomber and family receiving financial donations from individuals pledging their support, father says they will meet again in heaven

Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told his mother that people are sending him money and that someone opened an account for him, according to a new recording of their first phone call from prison.

When his mother asked if he is in pain, Tsarnaev replied in Russian: "No, of course not. I'm already eating and have been for a long time," according to a translation by Channel 4 News in the UK, which first aired the audio. The call took place last week.

"They are giving me chicken and rice now, everything is fine," he said.

Dzhokhar also told his mother that he has received at least a "thousand" dollars in a bank account that someone opened for him since his arrest. The mother says the family has also received $8,000 from individuals pledging their support, according to Channel 4 News.

Tsarnaev's parents say they have been offered one phone call a month with their son, who is in prison awaiting trial.. . .Federal prison officials told ABC News that like all inmates, Dzhokhar had a federal prison trust fund step up in his name upon his transfer there.

"They can receive money from outside sources and deposit money from their prison work assignments," said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Chris Burke. Burke declined to say if Dzhokhar was working while he recovers from his injuries.

Listening to the recording again, his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, is visibly emotional. She said Dzokhar spent much of the call trying to calm her down.

"Everything is good," her son assured her.

During the phone conversation, Tsarnaev's father Anzor told his son they will meet again in heaven...

Tamerlan Tsarnaev to face 30 charges including using a weapon of mass destruction, could face execution

A US grand jury has been told one of the Boston bombers scrawled a message declaring he "can't stand to see such evil go unpunished".

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was indicted overnight on 30 charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, resulting in death.

Many of the charges were brought against him in April, but new charges cover the killing of a police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during a getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead.

The jury was told the 19-year-old Chechen immigrant had scrawled a confession on the inside walls and beams of the boat he was hiding in before his capture, saying, "I don't like killing innocent people.

But, he allegedly also wrote, "the US Government is killing our innocent civilians. I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body; you hurt one you hurt us all. Stop killing our innocent people, we will stop.

The indictment further alleged that the Tsarnaev brothers carefully designed the twin bombs in order to "shred skin, shatter bone and cause extreme pain and suffering, as well as death.

They bought 48 fireworks mortar shells containing explosive powder from a fireworks store. It also disclosed that they used the Internet to order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.

Three people were killed and more than 260 injured in twin explosions near the finish line of the marathon on April 15.

Authorities said each brother placed a backpack containing a shrapnel-packed pressure cooker bomb near the marathon finish line. The bombs went off within seconds of one another.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed following a shootout with police four days later, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured hiding in a boat in a suburban backyard.

The court papers also confirm that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev inadvertently contributed to his brother's death by running him over during the shootout .. . .At the same time the federal indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count state indictment against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev over the police officer's slaying and the police shootout.

Tsarnaev pleads not guilty to all 30 charges, each of the 30 counts could bring a life sentence, seventeen the death penalty

Appearing disheveled and fidgety, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev turned repeatedly to gaze into the crowd that packed a federal courtroom Wednesday to see him plead not guilty to 30 counts charging that he bombed the Boston Marathon.

Watching him were 30 victims of that April bombing and their families, and some people who said they were there to show support for the 19-year-old Russian.

Public defender Judy Clarke tried to enter a single "not guilty" plea on Tsarnaev's behalf and have it apply to all counts in the indictment, but Judge Marianne Bowler said Tsarnaev would speak for himself and all the charges against him would be read aloud.

Flanked by his two attorneys, Tsarnaev said only two words — "not guilty" — and repeated them seven times as prosecutors read the charges. Each of the 30 counts could bring a life-in-prison sentence. Seventeen could make him eligible for the death penalty if the government decides to seek capital punishment.

The charges include using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, in connection with the April 15 attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260. He is also charged in the April 18 slaying of Sean Collier, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology security officer.

Tsarnaev seemed unable to sit still in the courtroom. His hair was long and unkempt. He wore a splint on one wrist. His eyes appeared irritated; the skin around them was dark. He displayed a crooked smile to his two sisters. His jaw functioned awkwardly. When he looked over his shoulder at the crowd, he repeatedly shifted his jaw and mouth to the right side of his face.

His voice, however, was strong. Soon after his arrest, there were indications that his throat might have undergone permanent injury in confrontations with police. He spoke with an accent reflective of his ethnic Chechen heritage. He spoke clearly and loudly.

The tense arraignment marked the first time Tsarnaev has appeared in public since he was charged. He was captured April 19, four days after two bombs exploded near the marathon finish line and a day after police released photographs of their suspects and launched a massive manhunt for him and his older brother, Tamerlan...

Music fans angry at decision to put a photo of Boston marathon bombings suspect on the cover of Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone readers have called for a boycott of the magazine after it featured a photo of one of the alleged Boston bombers on its cover.

Fans used to seeing musicians or actors on the front have expressed anger at the decision to use Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's picture of himself on next month's issue.

The image shows the 19-year-old unshaven with messy, curly hair above a headline saying The Bomber.

It bears a striking similarity to a front cover that featured The Doors frontman Jim Morrison.

The magazine goes on to say that it will reveal "how a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam, and became a monster".

Three people - Martin Richard, aged eight; Krystle Marie Campbell, 29, and 23-year-old Lingzi Lu - were killed in the attacks during the Boston marathon in April.

Shawn Anthony wrote on the magazine's Facebook page: "I think it's wrong to make celebrities out of these people. Why give the guy the cover of Rolling Stone? TIME gave Charles Manson the cover and all the magazines carried pictures of the Columbine shooters on the covers, too. Don't make martyrs out of these people."

James Mazzuchelli posted: "I will NEVER buy a Rolling Stone ever again. Disgraceful."

Pegeen Wotrubasaid: "It's a disgrace you would put him on your cover. Put a soldier, fireman or policeman, a runner from that day. After this comment, I am "un" liking your page."

On July 10 Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to 30 charges, including the use of weapons of mass destruction...